[RPG]: Serenity Role Playing Game, reviewed by Jamie Herbert (4/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11650.phtml

Jamie Herbert's Summary:

Is the Summer's last sci fi saga, the years newest RPG hit?

Go to the full review for more information.

[Eclectic Wave]

Good review, hit all the important good and bad points.

[Rev_Pee_Kitty]

One complaint I've heard about the game is that there's no definitive maps. While Joss originally conceived of this as one big solar system, the movie seemed to split it into multiple systems (the term "quadrant" makes no sense in a single-system setup). I've heard that there's only one system map and it doesn't make it clear which planets are in orbit around which sun, or which are planets and which are actually moons.

Is this accurate?

[Samhaine]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

One complaint I've heard about the game is that there's no definitive maps. While Joss originally conceived of this as one big solar system, the movie seemed to split it into multiple systems (the term "quadrant" makes no sense in a single-system setup). I've heard that there's only one system map and it doesn't make it clear which planets are in orbit around which sun, or which are planets and which are actually moons.

Is this accurate?

Yeah, the map is nice but doesn't tell you which planet is which. The facing page has the planets displayed in various colors, but it's really hard matching up the planets by color to the full map.

I get the impression that the authors were doing the best they could with what little physics Joss gave them for the setting, but it's still missing information. Particularly, there's no idea how long it takes to get from one place to another. The only indication of the size of the 'Verse is that 8 hours is about the longest time it might take a wave to go out to the edge and come back... which indicates that the radius of the system is only around 30 AU (smaller than our solar system).

There's still a lot of work involved if you want to have a relatively hard physics game, though it does present a lot of the science that isn't gone into deeply in the show or movie. In a game where the physics of travel aren't that important, I'd assume that it just takes as long as the story requires to get from one planet to another, with shorter times within the core.

[doublefeh]

Really, is the game nothing more than a basic resolution mechanic, a bit of expansion for combat, and lots of source material? That would be a damn shame.

Does it give any good procedures for creating scenarios? For setting up a dynamic crew that, like the Firefly crew, can both function together as a group but still be pulled in their own personal directions?

An actual play thread on the forum seemed to focus pretty heavily on the economics (ships have monthly maintenance, etc.). Does the book address how to handle this part of the game? (How much mone a 'job' should give, how much specific repairs should cost, and such)

Anything like the Buffy RPG's Plot Twist or similar Hero Point-ish mechanics?

[florin]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

One complaint I've heard about the game is that there's no definitive maps. While Joss originally conceived of this as one big solar system, the movie seemed to split it into multiple systems (the term "quadrant" makes no sense in a single-system setup). I've heard that there's only one system map and it doesn't make it clear which planets are in orbit around which sun, or which are planets and which are actually moons.

Is this accurate?

No, the movie specifically says it is in one system. And quadrant makes perfect sense. Imagine the system and a 2D circle. Divid it into four equal parts, those are the quadrants.

[Tim Gray]

Looks like the last bit of your text got lost. Maybe them nice RPGnet folks'll see you right.

[Cirwell]

>>While Joss originally conceived of this as one big solar system<<


Did he? Are you sure? I have heard this statement before but so far no one has been able to produce evidence of Josh actually saying this. Please enlighten me.

[TheLHF]

For an in depth conversation about the Serenity 'Verse, check out this Waves in the Black thread. We spend eight plus pages going over the form of the system and really ended up with two main theories, with lots of proof for both of them and no real answer.

--Victor

[Bhikku]

Originally Posted by TheLHF

For an in depth conversation about the Serenity 'Verse, check out this Waves in the Black thread. We spend eight plus pages going over the form of the system and really ended up with two main theories, with lots of proof for both of them and no real answer.

--Victor

Official word: the Serenity comic book, written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, explicitly states that the 'verse is a single star system. Much as I didn't want to believe it, there's not much arguing, I think. And having compared some numbers, I find that even a puny percentage of lightspeed would allow travel across our own star system as a matter of days or weeks. (By d20 Future standards, Realistic Space Travel at PL 8 would suit my impressions of travel time in the series, at any rate).

Having reviewed the thread mentioned above, I'd have to agree with the notion that most of the apparent 'stars' are actually some kind of Jovian objects - massive bundles of gas with sufficient gravity to hold planets or moons in orbit and heat those planets (geological friction due to pull as well as infrared and other radiation coming from the Jovian object's slow collapse). Such objects could be construed to include brown dwarf stars, which sometimes orbit more massive objects such as full stars and sometimes drift through intersteller space as their own miniature systems. Some dwarf stars heat up to red-hot, radiating some light, but most are quite dark. I'm thinking the apparent stars of Serenity's 'verse must be some kind of Jovian object giving off rather more light and heat than any currently known.

The moons of such hot, bright Jovian objects would certainly be more terraforming-friendly than most moons in our own system.